In this unit we will be looking at the first part of the modifiers, the past modifier. In Korean you need to be aware of how modifiers work. They are used in a different word order to English ones. They are mostly used with relative clauses and are instead of words such as ‘which/that/who’ etc in English. The first one that we are going to look at is the past modifier. It is a good place to start as then we will look at the present and future ones too. The only thing is that this one is used in two places. But more on that later. It is very easy to form the past modifier. Once you can, it is incredibly useful and can be used in a large number of other, more complicated forms. Again, more on this later. Get any verb. e.g. Møgda – to eat. Then take the -ta/da form off. Møg. Then add ûn. Møgûn. 먹은 Let’s look at some examples of how this works. This time as a relative clause. Pay special attention to the word order. (Saengsøn – fish 생선) saengsøn-ûl møgûn saram – The man who ate fish 생선을 먹은 사람 søp’a-esø anjûn namja – the boy who sat on the sofa 서파에서 앉은 남자 jamba-rûl ibûn yøja – the girl who wore a jumper 잠바를 입은 여자 With these forms we can then make longer sentences. saengsøn-ûl møgûn saram Jon-ieyo – The man who ate the fish is Jon 생선을 먹은 사람 전이에요 søp’a-esø anjûn namja chugøssøyo – the boy who sat on the sofa died 서파에서 앉은 남자 죽었어요 ppalgan jamba-rûl ibûn yøja jølmøyo – the girl who wore a red jumper is young 빨간 잠바를 입은 여자 젊어요 The reason that this is a weird form is that it is used for all adjectives too. If you look back at the section on adjectives we learned that when we put them before nouns we add -ûn. This is the same form as the past form for verbs. All adjectives take the -ûn form, regardless of their tense, be it past, present or future. e.g. pigon hada – to be tired = pigon han – tired (adj) 피곤한 They work just like modifiers:

pigon han saram Jon-ieyo – The tired man is Jon. 피곤한 사람 전이에요

øryøun munje che munje-imnida – the difficult problem is my problem 어려운 문제 제 문제입니다 ssan ch’a i gøshieyo – this one is the cheap car 싼 차 이 것이에요 That’s enough for now, but there’s lots more to follow on this interesting new grammar rule. In closing, add -ûn to the stem of any verb to make the past modifier. Word order is as follows: object + marker + verb + subject umshig-ûl mogûn ke – the dog that ate the food 음식을 먹은 개 ne p’at’i-e on chingu – the friend that came to my party 내 파티에 온 친구 tongmunwøn-e kan kasu – the singer that went to the zoo 동물에 간 가수 And a more complicated one: kûn kage-an-e norae-rûl norae-han kasu nuguseyo? = Who is the singer who sang a song in the big shop? 큰 가게안에 노래를 노래한 가수 누구세요? Enjoy that one?! More on this rule to follow 안녕 가세요!